Summer meteor showers are heating up with significant numbers of fireballs - time to consider setting up a camera or two if you have not already!

[Leo S]

18 hours ago, Elp said:

That twin one was at the same time one after the other, all of them are at real time covering around an hour. Visually I probably only saw 2-3, one even happened as I was taking flats for my imaging scope with my back turned. Haven't seen any true fireballs, I did see two very bright trailing ones though during one of the Geminids, they were bright enough to etch their trails onto your eyeballs for a second or two, one was a bright blue/green/teal right across the sky above, the other was a shorter yellow one.

The longer one stuck in my mind. It was the first Perseid of the year to leave a strong visible train. Everything else I've observed visually thus far this year has failed to produce a strong train, but this lasted a couple of seconds which isn't bad for semi-rural skies and a non-fireball Perseid.

Like you, I have not caught any definitive fireballs visually so far, but have caught a couple of borderline fireballs in the last week, and a handful of low negative magnitude Perseids.

 

Let's try the clip again:

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Leo S
Fixed clip

[Elp]

Hoping Friday will be good. Saturday looks to be blanket cloud yet again during the peak.

[Leo S]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

Hoping Friday will be good. Saturday looks to be blanket cloud yet again during the peak.

Likewise. Friday looks like the only hope, although perhaps there is a chance that the forecast might get a bit clearer on Saturday. I've seen it happen before, at the last minute. 

[scotty1]

Had a look 2-3 am into Friday 11th ,saw four meteors, one bright going through Cygnus. Clouded up after 3am.  

Should be a few tonight, but it's still cloudy may not clear until 2am around London. Or not at all....

Edited August 12, 2023 by scotty1

[WolfieGlos]

Two years ago tonight I first saw a meteor with my own eyes after moving from a built up area, and what an Astro journey I’ve had since then.

Today, we’ve had sun all day but also a few streaky clouds roaming around. 9pm we had a rain shower, yet the forecast said it would clear up. And it did…11.15 I set the scope up despite the not so great seeing, I’ve also had a DSLR on a tripod catching some shots of the milky way . I’ve been sat outside the whole time, and not seen one Perseid 🙁 The whole weekend is forecast to be rain, rain and rain, as well as being away it looks like I won’t see any this year. 

[DaveS]

Nope, clouded out for the foreseeable.

[scotty1]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

Nope, clouded out for the foreseeable.

Another meteor shower cancelled by BST 🙄

[Elp]

Luckily I got to do a take 2 the same week, but peak was cloudy, a curious one was near the end, it lasts 1 frame so 0.04s:

 

 

[scotty1]

This says Persied numbers have decreased over the last few decades. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/08/03/its-not-just-you-the-perseids-really-are-getting-weaker/?sh=87149f513d7d 

 

23.30  14-8- 23

Went outside to check the sky, there were some gaps and I could see the summer triangle. Saw two Persieds within three minutes, but the cloud is back for tonight. 

Edited August 13, 2023 by scotty1

[Leo S]

Nice reports everyone. The weather has been disappointing, so well done to those who managed to catch any Perseids!

I tried to run the cameras on peak night (Saturday) and managed around 3hrs while there were some gaps in the clouds around, but it seemed a fairly average peak at best, without too many bright meteors. I did visually catch a couple of long negative magnitude PERs that shot down towards the SW within 2-4 seconds of each other. Unfortunately the cameras don't appear to have caught anything significant from that night, but I've only checked at specific times, so there may yet be something that was missed.

Pre-peak night (Friday night) was a different story. For much of the night we were surrounded by clouds, but many clouds that approached had melted away by the time they would have been overhead, so it was not too bad a night from that point of view. There were also plenty of bright meteors about (I monitored UKMON cameras most of the night), but most of them seemed to be N of the border, or too far S or E for me or the cameras. One big fireball in particular occurred not far from here just as it was starting to get light, but I'd already packed away the cameras.

I did think my cameras had missed anything significant, but after checking the footage at the times of interest I noted down, I found that they had caught one bright Perseid , and it was a good one:

 

[Leo S]

By the way, a bit late but there might still be more to come in the next hour or three for anyone who has clear sky:

"The International Meteor Organization notes that on August 14 between 1 UT and 2:45 UT (August 13th, 9–10:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) Earth will encounter a trail of dust (called a filament) released by the comet in 68 BCE that could briefly boost meteor counts."

[Leo S]

3 hours ago, scotty1 said:

This says Persied numbers have decreased over the last few decades. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/08/03/its-not-just-you-the-perseids-really-are-getting-weaker/?sh=87149f513d7d

That is true, but while on average we are moving away from the dust trails that make up the Perseid meteor shower, there can still be ourtbursts or even storms in certain years, at least for a few decades to come.

On the flip side of the coin we are also moving further into other showers. alpha Capricornids for example - a weak shower currently, although known to produce large fireballs on a regular basis, it's predicted to become a much more intense shower, although that is in decades/centuries to come:

[scotty1]

17 hours ago, Leo S said:

By the way, a bit late but there might still be more to come in the next hour or three for anyone who has clear sky:

"The International Meteor Organization notes that on August 14 between 1 UT and 2:45 UT (August 13th, 9–10:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) Earth will encounter a trail of dust (called a filament) released by the comet in 68 BCE that could briefly boost meteor counts."

Ok , what is BCE ?  

Also I was thinking tonight is forecast clear for the southeast. Would it be worth having a short session of meteor spotting? Or are the Persieds out of range now? I think after the peak that number of meteors is tiny. I suppose it's always worth a look for some sporadics.

Edit

I see now 68 BCE is quite a while ago, it's fascinating how they know the exact date of this, although in the larger picture that is not long. 

Edited August 14, 2023 by scotty1

[Leo S]

6 hours ago, scotty1 said:

Ok , what is BCE ?  

Also I was thinking tonight is forecast clear for the southeast. Would it be worth having a short session of meteor spotting? Or are the Persieds out of range now? I think after the peak that number of meteors is tiny. I suppose it's always worth a look for some sporadics.

Edit

I see now 68 BCE is quite a while ago, it's fascinating how they know the exact date of this, although in the larger picture that is not long. 

The models are amazingly powerful. Even 2 decades back they were able to predict outbursts to within ~5 minutes of their actual time!

We may be past peak, and rates will likely have taken a dip compared to previous nights, but there should be at least a few around, and perhaps still fairly good rates. I'll probably have my cameras out in a bit, and tomorrow night looks very good too, although PER rates are even more lightly to have fallen further - but we've had so much cloud this year, any chance to catch a fireball is welcome.

Edit to add: And yes, there is always the chance of a sporadic fireball (or even from a minor shower), as well as a big Perseid.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Leo S

[andrew63]

Caught a nice colourful Perseid meteor tonight at 22.40 BST with iPhone. A few nights of cloud, but good to be still seeing them ☄️

 

 

Edited August 15, 2023 by andrew63
info

[scotty1]

Perfect conditions tonight obviously two days late 🤗

Sat outside 00.40 - 01.30 saw one sporadic. The Cygnus region is faintly visible with the naked eye (urban garden)  

Edit

Managed to capture one Persied about 03.05 BST 

Edited August 15, 2023 by scotty1

[Leo S]

Well I got distracted, and ended up setting up cameras after the sky had cleared. Typically, there was a fireball while I was setting up (didn't know at the time), and it seems that after that it went quiet, with only low negative magnitude meteors being fairly regular. Here's an image of the fireball from a UKMON camera:

https://live.ukmeteornetwork.co.uk/M20230814_211933_searby_n_UK004BP.jpg

I think there were a few borderline fireballs towards the end of the night, and perhaps the cameras caught something, but I'll have look through footage since there were some gaps in my monitoring of the UKMON cameras, and I might have missed something. Cameras ran from 21:22 UT to around 03:00 UT. I did also visually observe a couple of low negative magnitude PERs, and perhaps 3-4 dimmer candidates too.

 

[Elp]

Bring on the Geminids I say, unfortunately it's usually during the freezing cold and bad weather.

[andrew63]

The Perseids are still delivering! I observed and also captured with iPhone a really bright Perseid with trail, at 22.51 BST tonight, just before it left the frame.  It's probably this one caught by a UKMON camera. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by andrew63
photo

[maw lod qan]

I have set up my camera,  a Canon, with direct power to let it run unattended all night. 10 sec exp will run into the thousands!

I have caught many meteors, and have also caught an unexpected rain that ended with my camera and lens in a container with "damprid" to dry it out.

I always thought, maybe I'll catch that moment no one expected.I 

[Elp]

A cheap home monitoring cam also works okay though a bit noisy, benefit is you can leave it recording realtime video all night and all it needs is mains power and an sd card.

[Mr Magoo]

13 hours ago, andrew63 said:

The Perseids are still delivering! I observed and also captured a really bright Perseid with trail at 10.51 BST tonight, just before it left the frame.  It's probably this one caught by a UKMON camera. 

I observed my best 2023 Perseid fireball last Wednesday around 11pm. I'm out observing all night tonight until dawn tomorrow, hope to see some stragglers. 

My observing dark site is miles from home so camera recording is not on the cards. Have to look into portable recording equipment, some of the meteor clips above are outstanding,

Edited August 16, 2023 by Mr Magoo

[andrew63]

The Perseid I saw last night, was seen from Aberdeenshire down through to Cornwall, the track above the Irish Sea.  Amazing  ☄️

[Leo S]

On 15/08/2023 at 23:53, andrew63 said:

The Perseids are still delivering! I observed and also captured with iPhone a really bright Perseid with trail, at 22.51 BST tonight, just before it left the frame.  It's probably this one caught by a UKMON camera. 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I think you're right. I also saw the event caught by UKMON cameras while monitoring them. I thought my cameras might have caught it, but it must have been too far north. Glad someone else managed to catch it!

[Leo S]

On 16/08/2023 at 12:11, maw lod qan said:

I have set up my camera,  a Canon, with direct power to let it run unattended all night. 10 sec exp will run into the thousands!

I have caught many meteors, and have also caught an unexpected rain that ended with my camera and lens in a container with "damprid" to dry it out.

I always thought, maybe I'll catch that moment no one expected.I 

Good to hear you were able to run a camera all night. Now comes the fun part - going through all your images

Sorry to hear your camera got wet. I hope it's OK. Unfortunately it is a danger, and my cameras also get wet from time to time, but only lightly wet - not dripping. I try to keep a close eye on them, and check them often, but sometimes a sneaky cloud will open up before I realize.

I've heard you can now obtain rain sensors, so that might be something to consider. A makeshift rain-coat (AKA plastic bag) could also be a good idea if you plan to leave cameras outdoors for long periods. Personally I am planning to set up weatherproofed cameras eventually. That is the way to go if you you are serious about meteors - just having a single camera running in all weathers should pick up many more events than manually setting up whenever it looks clear.